1 Up East Ward,
Lord Derby War Office,
Warrington.
Oct. 8., '17.

My dear Lulu

I am writing from the same old address, and I am hoping - as usual - that the waters will move soon. I have often wondered whether a decent self-respecting old cripple could jump down into the water first, while others were needing it just as badly as he was. He that first jumped into the waters must have been a selfish fellow; & so the very one who should not have been healed - at least according to the generally accepted laws of morality (in theory).

But that was a bad digression, and you will think me a 'Cynic". Fancy a man writing to a lady & beginning a letter in such a way!

Well I will start again. I received three splendid letters from you after a famine of nearly two weeks. They did me lots of good, & I was more than pleased to hear of your progress. The crutches have been discarded, & then the stick went the same way. How often I have seen that order in hospital! And as I write you will be at Toronto or Niagara. I am so glad that you are to have a real good holiday, & I hope that you are enjoying it immensely. There is no chance of my being with you until you get back to Digby, so it is no use my wishing it. I wish we could be together at Digby though. That wish is possible anyway, & after all, my dear Lulu, it is there I would rather be with you first. I wonder what the first day together will be like. We know each other splendidly - on paper - but perhaps I am not just like my letters, as your friends tell you you are. I will try not to disappoint you anyway. Somehow, I have looked forward so much to being with you, that the possibility seems very remote.

The doctor came round a little while ago & laughed when I told him that I was just wasting time here. Then at the office they told me that my name was in the list of men who were to go next to Kirkdale, Liverpool, where I would be re-examined. So a I am slowly moving homewards.

I am sending you a photo of my nephew Clarence which I received from my sister at Conway the other day. Keep it until I come will you, Lulu dear, & tell me what you think of him. I could get no views of Manchester, but my brother got the two I am enclosing. I will try to get some more.

The other day I sent two books which I have just read. You must forgive me "unloading" such things upon you, but they are just beautiful I think. They express my thoughts & emotions so exactly that I thought I would like you to read them. Tell me what you think of them after you have read them. I am just reading "The Soul of a Bishop" by Wells.

Yesterday I got proofs of that photo I had taken; when they will be ready I don't know, but I will send you one as soon as I can get it.

Yes, God has been very good to me, Lulu. I had a narrow escape of the air raid, & it was more terrifying than I dreamed possible. I thank God from the bottom of my heart that you are not subject to them in Canada.

The papers I received the same day that I received your letters. Thanks for them, Lulu. I will repay you if I can, for all your kindness & encouragement when I got back. I hope Ainley is getting along well still. Your reports about him are very good & certainly it does seem as if a special Providence was looking after him.

Today is very cold & miserably wet, when I think of those poor fellows in France I feel a sort of "piker". It does seem as if God was all together too good to me; I seem to be protected on every hand. And through it all I cannot rest. What a man I am! How do you account for it? Today you will leave Toronto I suppose. I do not know Toronto at all, Lulu, so remember to tell me what it is like.

Write as often as you can, Lulu dear, for they are the things I look forward to most of all.

With very best love

Yours

Tom